Assault reportedly started with 'cowboy' comment

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A brutal crowbar assault that sent one man to the hospital and one man to jail stemmed from a barroom fight that began when “someone called someone else a cowboy,” said Nevada County Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Tripp.

A Penn Valley man identified as Scott Cameron Hodges, 29, reportedly had been in the Lake House Restaurant and Bar on Highway 20 and Mooney Flat Road Saturday night and had been kicked out by an employee, Tripp said.

A fight reportedly ensued between Hodges and the employee, before Hodges left.

But he allegedly returned — with approximately four others in tow — at about 2 a.m.

“They began to beat the employee with a crowbar to the ground,” Tripp said, adding that a second man also was injured, possibly another employee of the bar.

That man sustained multiple lacerations to the face and head, as well as injuries to his legs and hands.

“He had a lot of defensive injuries,” Tripp said. “He was on the ground, getting kicked.”

The one victim who was still at the restaurant when deputies responded was taken to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital; the other victim had left the scene and was being sought, Tripp said.

Witnesses were able to provide a license plate number for the suspects’ vehicle, Tripp added.

The vehicle was traced to a residence on Siesta Drive in Penn Valley, where Hodges was arrested on suspicion of battery causing serious bodily injury and was being held in county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

A second man at the residence, Dutch Cooper, 29, was arrested for violating post-release community supervision and was being held without bail.

Charges could be filed against a third and fourth man and a woman, who also were at the residence.

The suspects had been asked to leave the bar “because they were unruly and out of control due to the level of intoxication,” Tripp said. “When they returned, they harassed the victim for being a cowboy … The female suspect appeared to egg on the males to fight.”